I try not to be an alarmist about Christmas coming but I do love the idea of prepping ahead of time so I can actually enjoy the month of December. My birthday, my mother in laws birthday, and our wedding anniversary also falls during that magical month so preparation is key- I try to get Christmas gifts lined up now and my cards too!

So in that "a little pressure now so no pressure then" mode-- I'll be posting inspirational projects each week until Christmas. This first set of inspiration comes from an online convention that I'm participating in this rainy weekend!

There is SO much you can do with our Project Life cards and making cards is one of them! Ronda Wade designed a few cute holiday ones from the Seasonal Snapshot 2015 kit! Behold- fast cards that look fancy!

Would you like to order this and make it? I only added some twine and cardstock! The Seasonal Snapshot kit is $16 and the Accessory kit is $13! You can bundle it all with the stamp set (#140308) for only $38.25! Make sure to check out my online store-- you can find this easily in the Holiday Catalog? Want a catalog? Let me know!

I was excited to spend quality time with my sorority sister and upline, Angie Watts!

And even more excited to see the new holiday catalog!!!! September-December is my favorite time of year-- I love everything about it-- football, fall leaves, cooler temps, schools back in session, new school supplies, craft opportunities, gift giving opportunities, soup... Yummy!

Look at this adorable home decor kit in he new catalog!!!! I'm making one for sure and would love to have a class at your place to do it!

And these bags that look like candy corn? Couldn't be easier-- with Washi tape handles!!

Confession time-- this is my first attempt at washi tape! I love the All is Calm washi tape set and felt it was a great deal and could even transition beyond Christmas... So I bought it and then saw people who had layered it behind a cut out Tree Punch!! I thought it would be neater to punch out the washi tree and then have it pop out from a "snow globe" made with the stars embossing folder...

Cut out your circle, then layer washi tape!

Line up, left and right, in the punch and punch out!

Then flip it over to emboss it in the big shot with the adorable Lucky Stars embossing folder!

Then emboss Season's Greeting in silver at the bottom of a sheet (5.25 inch by 4 inch) of Lost Lagoon cardstock and tape down the snow globe. Then use two Dimensionals under the tree and tape it all to a standard white card front!!

Our team does a four card swap for every new catalog that comes out-- and it's holiday catalog time! We each pick a stamp set and I picked Merry Everything!

I can't wait to get my swaps in the mail-- since they are in Texas I send my designs and they gather mine and send them back to me!!

Here's my first card-- Halloween card with Tangelo Twist!

This next one is my favorite because it uses Hello Honey and gold embossing on vellum!! I can't wait to make a few more of these!

And this is my second favorite-- I love this embossing folder because it makes anything look super fancy! And that cherry cobbler ribbon is luscious!

Now pardon this lopsided photo but apparently I didn't take a picture of this card completed-- so this is it in the planning stage... The Bermuda Bay star paper was part of the Halloween DSP but it screamed Christmas to me!

So, what do we think?? Fun set of cards right? Merry Everything is a great set because it includes all three fall holidays plus a general tag for gifts-- love a multifunctioning stamp set!

This group is giving away 15 prizes of $675 worth of card making supplies from various vendors, including Stampin' Up! Fair warning though-- not everything used in these cards are Stampin' Up! product but that's ok for this contest...

They have five categories to enter in-- my first one is in the "hello" category:

This thank you card uses the Dahlia from Regarding Dahlia stamp set!

Gumball Green embossed "love" card made with Envelope Punch Board!

Happy Birthday card made with Bloom with Hope stamp set!

And finally, Christmas card made with Seasonally Scattered and Lost Lagoon-- my favorite color!!

Hope these inspire you!!

Happy crafting,

Melissa

P.S. For details on the contest check here: http://www.worldcardmakingday.com/index.html